This movie is one that will easily test your ability to remember facts, people and places. However, if that wasn't enough, the view that you are presented with is a colored one, so you'll have to filter out what you think it the narrator's embelishments. And on top of this is a script of labyrinthine proportions.

This is easily the most complex film plot of recent memory, with dozens of snips of information thrown at you from the narrator, Roger "Verbal" Kint (Kevin Spacey). It would be difficult interpreting it even if it was spelled out in clear English. It is a taut master work, and writer Christopher McQuarrie deserves an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

The plot revovles around five criminals played by Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, Benicio Del Toro and Kevin Pollak. Somehow they were invovled in a $91 million cocaine deal that went bad. Four of this pack died - or are they dead? Did they escape with the drugs in a deceptively clever plot - or - are they victims of a ruthless criminal mastermind? Can U.S. Customs Special Agent David Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) solve the mystery?

There are more than enough twists and turns in this plot to keep you guessing and at times it's actually daunting. If "Pulp Fiction's" unique organizational structure lost you, you'll be scratching your head more than once in this one.

If their is any draw back to the script it is the fact that you can't miss a single line of dialogue, or look away from the screen and grab your Coke for fear of missing something that will be of great importance later. In fact for a short time I thought I had lost the plotline all-together.

That said, the ending is marvelous, and will have you stunned. Unlike some thrillers that leave open holes in the plot and have you second-guessing the motivations and reasons for participants actions, "The Usual Suspects" is sound material.

It's worth seeing... twice.

Copyright (c) 1995 Tony Zidek